Items found on the map

Genuinely curious, as someone who hasnt really found anything of real value in the city and with 6 points on my awareness merit, is it worth it to max it out?

Wanted to ask people, what was the best item you found in the city?

You’ll divide the forums with this question. Some people make more than enough cash and need the merits spent in other sections such as banking or attacking. Others will somehow find an SE or 2 each year and will swear by the 10/10 awareness.

Basically it’s for you to decide how valuable the extra merits would be to you. Only you know your play style and requirements.

Found few SEs goodie bags point items. List goes on. It doesnt hurt

I have full bar spent for extra awareness and also i work in a job that gives me + 70% awareness , and in
Half of year only crap i found around the city. So totaly not recommend spending the merits on the awareness upgrade, unele you have the book that gives you increased awareness ....but event like this it’s a matter of luck...possible you never hit a se.

I've found I think a goodie bag, couple FHCs, few (under 20?) cans with 3 in AWA.
I'm inclined to say it's useless, but... ¯\_(?)_/¯

In another thread asking the same thing I heard it put better than anywhere else: "Awareness merits are passive gambling."

Credit to whoever said it.

Skateboard, but at the time I only had 3 or 4 merits in awareness, have it maxxed now and nothing good recently except a FHC last week

Nothing really good ever. I even have 10/10 and I have never in 9 years of playing found a SE, a cesium, or any other high value item at all ever.

Depends on your luck. Awareness just increase chance to find something not items value.
If you are lucky awareness merits can be worth it if not they are not.

Damn thats just terrible luck isnt it?

is it worth it to max it out?

If you don't intend to ever subscribe, then absolutely yes, as it's one of the only ways to obtain books normally granted as subscription rewards.

From my time with max awareness, I will say this.

I am happy I maxed it, and plan on keeping it maxed. All in all, I won't say that it's a reliable and steady source of income, but it adds a layer of fun on a daily(ish) basis.

That said, is there better things to use your merits on? Probably.

Have 1 point in awareness. Took 2 years to find one SE also with edu. Expect to never get an SE again as well. Ched blessed me once but never again ;( besides my 10 banks merits have earned me more in those 2 years so eh. Steady income ftw.

Do i "intend" to subscribe?
Yes

Soon?
Probably not
But i do see your point! A chance to get items that you otherwise wouldnt be able to get without a substantial amount of money in game or paying money IRL

have 0 points found an SE once but mostly its bricks and such cans and SEDs are common though also

may put some merits into awareness but id never put more than 5/10

I've had very good luck with awareness - but it really is RNG luck.

I read the finders keepers book as a clueless nub in my noob faction with no merits/job specials etc and found a SE and some other decent cans, coupons, supply packs etc. That funded my PI. After that I have probably maintained on average 6/7 merits in awareness and found a further 3 stat enhancers in my first ~700 days.

Like others said though - investing in banking, or mugging (if you have that game style and skills/patience) could probably net you similiar or much superior gains over time against average awareness luck.

After 2.5 years playing, other merit trees have become more important to me over time - the passive stats make a huge difference in battles/chains for instance. Likewise the weapon specialties. I tend to shove extra merits into awareness as and when but if I come to reset (you get a free one every year, I think?) I'm generally looking to stack out other branches.

For young players all the good guides suggest maxxing out crit hits, life and education - and it is hard to disagree with this - all three will give you an all round advantage to general game play if you are in even a semi-active faction that chains and a foundation as you develop your stats and play style as you get stronger.

I managed to find a skateboard earlier this year and only have 3 bars on awareness.

I have yet to meet someone who can satisfactorily explain to me how the item finding in the city works.

Just a copy/paste from my post in similar thread, regarding the difference between 0-6 merits for my first 2 years of playing and 10 merits for the most recent year. Essentially, with 1 year of 10 awareness merits, I've found more in 11 months than I did in the ~2 years before it without maxed awareness merits:

[image: i.imgur.com]

I've found more than almost 430 items this year, though I did read the awareness book in April, where I found ~150 items. Ignoring those it comes to about 280 items over 11 months. Since last month, it's 30 items, if we add in the two low value items I found today(669 instead of 667).

Of those 7 items I found in the last week, I've got about 20-30m in value(anti-tank gun, cans, senet pawn). Also found a stat enhancer during awareness week, and another one while using the book, as well as a cesium in the summer.

I switched to full awareness merits after we got the free merit reset last Christmas. Before that, over 566 days I found 229 items. Since maxing out the awareness merits, I've found 280 items over the course of 334 days(ignoring the awareness book month), which if my math is correct, is about twice as often, and the value of the items have seemed to be more frequently 7+ digit value items.

I still get dry spells that can last up to a week or more, but I feel like the merits have paid for themselves, which if I bought with points would have cost around $700m to max it. It's worth it as a long term perk for passive income generation, and I'm willing to give up the combat related benefits I would otherwise spend it on for it.

[image: i.imgur.com]


Notice how there are multiple months where I actually didn't get a single item before Jan 2020, and many more "steps" where very few items were found(single digit amounts per month) and then that type of trend disappeared entirely after maxing awareness merits.

I will say though, that you really should put all of your merits into education first, and then whatever suits you afterwards depending on your play style, which may very well benefit from maxed awareness.Hard to give an objective, definite answer without knowing how you spend your time in torn.

I started almost 2 years ago and found a cesium about 2 weeks in. No merits at all in awareness. Since then I filled the bar and only a month ago did I find dumbbells. I'm about to reset all my merits for redistribution and awareness is going to be ignored.

Edit. Just felt I should say that I did find good items on the map but not $100m items, maybe a donator box once.

I dunno I've done alot of research into this recently however I've been told awareness has been nerfed recently as well but based on my prenerf data the average value (LONG TERM) is probally about 40-100mil per month, to me its worth it since money is king in torn(when I have enough merits to spend on it at least) it just depends on the players need and how many merits they have outside of what they value as critical merits purchases.